Girl Meets the Secret of Life
Girl Meets the Secret of Life is the third episode in season 2 of Girl Meets World and the 24th episode overall. It aired on May 13, 2015 to 2.6 million viewers. Overview Lucas' old friend from Texas transfers to John Quincy Adams Middle School, and Cory uses an unusual method to teach the kids about the meaning of life. Plot Just as Cory's class begins, a new student walks in to the classroom who turns out to be one of Lucas' old classmates from Texas. Cory welcomes him to their class, and says that if he works out as well as Lucas has, they’re happy to have him. The new student, Isaiah "Zay" Babineaux, is surprised to see that Lucas is doing well at JQAMS, but Lucas is more perplexed than pleased to see Zay and insists they wait until after class to catch up with one another. As Cory is about to start teaching again, Yogi contemplatingly asks aloud what the secret of life is. Always willing to change his lesson plan for a student in need, Cory takes up the question and asks Lucas his thoughts, at which point Maya chimes that Lucas should know, referring to him as the “moral compass” of the class, which causes Zay to laugh aloud in disbelief. Zay was under the impression that everyone there knew about Lucas' past, and then after blurting out that Lucas is a year older than the others, Zay presses Lucas to tell him what the others know, because he doesn't want to say anything he shouldn't. Riley and Maya begin to realize that Lucas was somebody quite different back in Texas, which is confirmed by Zay. Cory reveals that he knows all about Lucas’s past, which upsets Riley, and Lucas confesses that he transferred to New York to get a new start because of something he did in Texas that got him expelled from his school in Austin, but he does not tell what he did. During lunch, Riley and Maya (who calls Lucas by name for the first time) beg Lucas to deny Zay's claims, but he cannot. Riley reveals that she's not so much troubled about what Lucas may have done in Texas as she is about the fact that he didn't tell her. She argues that friends are supposed to trust one another, and that it’s not right for Lucas to let her like him knowing he’s keeping something significant about his past from her. Lucas says that he just wanted a fresh start, and that he is not proud of what he did in Austin. Later at home, Riley angrily confronts Cory about the fact that he knew about Lucas' expulsion and didn't tell her; Topanga assures Riley that Cory knows what she needs to learn from it, but when Riley asks him what it is, he says nothing. The next day, Cory gives the class a math problem to solve: "Al washes a car in six minutes while Fred washes the same car in eight minutes. How long does it take Al and Fred to wash the same car together?” Farkle quickly answers "three minutes, 25.7 seconds, but Cory says that is incorrect. Cory tells the class their assignment is to wash a car together; he pairs Riley with Lucas to wash the car, and if they do it right; they will uncover the secret of life. Riley and Lucas wash the car in six minutes and eight seconds, but it takes nearly twenty minutes for Maya and Zay to wash the same car, so Farkle pressures Riley and Lucas to wash the car again, and to do it in the three minutes, 25.7 seconds just so they can show up Cory. Riley quickly attacks Lucas with the water hose demanding he tell her what he did to get expelled, but Lucas still refuses. She confronts him with the fact that he was the first boy she ever really liked, which is a big deal for her; she demands to know if he's worth her liking him, saying that she wants to believe him and will believe him if he says 'yes', which he does. Zay remarks to Maya that they're a close-knit group; when Maya asks Zay what Lucas did to get expelled, Zay declines to answer believing he has already said too much. He then walks back into the school alone. Back in class, Cory reveals that except on paper, there is no answer to the math problem he gave them before. Lucas asks if there is an answer in life, and Cory says that they’ve now arrived at the secret; Riley thinks he’s referring to Lucas’ secret, but Cory is actually talking about something more ecumenical. Lucas tells Riley that his secret will come out when it’s meant to come out, and that he’s a different person now than he was when he lived in Texas. Cory reveals that this is the secret of life: people change people. When Cory asks Lucas where Zay is, he replies he doesn't know. Lucas admits he cares about his friends, including Zay, and marginally expounds on the reason for his expulsion: that Zay had a penchant for getting himself into trouble and Lucas took it upon himself to bail Zay out ("What was I supposed to do?"). Meanwhile, Zay, attempting to find his own circle of friends, is in the hallway glibly talking to Joey Ricciardella, the school punk, who promptly grabs him by his lapels and pins him against the lockers. When Zay calls out to Lucas for help, Cory allows him to go to Zay's rescue, but not before he tells the class that if he comes back without being expelled, they’ve changed him; Cory follows Lucas out to the hall with Riley, Maya and Farkle right behind. Lucas quietly confronts Joey, admitting it would be easier for the two of them to start throwing punches at one another, but then Lucas warns him that if worse comes to the worst Joey will lose, so Lucas allows him to keep his reputation in exchange for letting Lucas keep his. After Joey leaves, Lucas asks Zay why he came to New York; Zay goes into a long-winded account about how he missed his best friend and that he convinced his entire family to pack up and move to New York, but it turns out that Zay's father got transferred to New York same as Lucas' father. While he admits he's glad Zay is there with him, Lucas says he doesn't want to have to be the same guy he was in Texas. Zay observes that he isn't anymore as the two walk back into class, and Riley echoes Cory's words, "people change people". Cast Main cast *Rowan Blanchard as Riley Matthews *Ben Savage as Cory Matthews *Sabrina Carpenter as Maya Hart *Peyton Meyer as Lucas Friar *August Maturo as Auggie Matthews *Corey Fogelmanis as Farkle Minkus / Brenda *Danielle Fishel as Topanga Matthews Guest cast *Amir Mitchell-Townes as Isaiah "Zay" Babineaux *Shak Ghacha as Joey Ricciardella *Nicholas Jabonero as Yogi Quotes Trivia *First appearance of Zay. *George Feeny and Stuart Minkus are mentioned. *References from Girl Meets Boy and Girl Meets First Date are used. *First time a non-studio set scene was used in the series. *Back of the class Brenda makes a second appearance. *There are references to previous episodes Girl Meets First Date, Girl Meets Friendship, Girl Meets Boy and Girl Meets Maya's Mother. *Maya jokes about "Rileytown," which comes into existence in Girl Meets Rules. *This is the fourth time the lesson on Belgium 1831 is interrupted. *Maya repeats Lucas' name in the same way Cory and Shawn used to repeat Minkus' name. *The character of Joey Ricciardella (named after GMW staff member Geralyn Riciardella) is reminiscent of Harley Keiner, and is a more menacing version of "Dump Truck", the character Shak Ghacha portrays on the Disney Channel series Liv And Maddie. *The same Car Washing question from the Boy Meets World Season 1 episode "Once In Love With Amy" is used. *Riley and Lucas have a water fight. *When Lucas told Joey that he'd be the on the floor and Lucas would be the one that walks away, Maya seemed intrigued and interested; she emits a more quiet shudder similar to previous times when she fails to aggravate Lucas with her playful cattiness. *First time Farkle is wrong (he also admits it). Stuart Minkus, Farkle's father, also gets the question wrong, even though they get the right "textbook" answer. *Riley references Girl Meets Boy in this episode. She talks about Lucas by saying "He's going to be a veterinarian", which is what he claimed he wanted to be in Girl Meets Boy. *Cory is the only one that knew about Lucas' bad past. *Maya calls Lucas by his name, and acknowledges the fact. *At one point non-related to the scene mentioned above, she says Lucas' name in a sentence similar to the way Cory and Shawn did to Minkus in Killer Bees (Boy Meets World). International premieres * June 19, 2015 (Canada) *September 20, 2015 (Latin America and Brazil) *November 21, 2015 (Hungary) *November 29, 2015 (Poland) *December 12, 2015 (Romania) *January 4, 2016 (Israel) *January 24, 2016 (Italy) *September 20, 2016 (Philippines) Gallery Transcript Videos Category:Season 2 episodes Category:Aired episodes Category:Episodes Category:Season 2